Another mental shift

[beetiger]

projectmothra and I went raspberry picking yesterday, and managed to collect two pounds of berries in the heat. I'm really enjoying Rhys' company these days; he's really becoming a little person, interesting to talk to, and someone I can interact with rather than just constantly worrying about. We were in a big field of bramblebushes, and it didn't matter that much if he wanted to be in a part of it where I couldn't quite see him.

A few weeks ago, he started all of a sudden with "why" questions. Some are the easy kind, science bits that I happen to know about. Some are the annoying preschooler kind, the kind that need to find rationales for house rules and circle on to themselves over and over, or the kind that find me constantly saying "Well, I made a mistake." "They made a mistake." "Probably just a mistake." It makes my world seem klutzy and careless, really. Some are complicated and interesting, and obviously showing that his little brain is doing a lot of synthesis, such as the first one he asked me in the car yesterday, on the way to berry picking. "Why if a cat is sick you take them to the veterinarian, but if a deer is sick then it is food for a wolf?"

In the last few days, he's moved into "how things work" questions. Luckily for me, a lot of them are about how various foods are made, which is a topic in which I have a decent amount of expertise. I did quite a bit of handwaving about how you build an airplane so it can fly. And we talked about doing research or experiments to find out the answer to things. And sure enough, I'm having the first round of the kind of questions about babies that make you have to listen carefully about exactly what the question is, so you don't overexplain. (In his case, he's mostly worried that since newborn babies don't really know how to do anything, how can they know how and when to get out of their mommy and be born?)

I'm willing to deal with the nightly round of "Why do little boys need more sleep than grownups?", balanced with the pleasure of watching his mind wake up.

Comments

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

I can not recomend enough David Macaulay's The Way Things Work as an addition to the household library distinctly for the purpose of working with these questions. I still have my copy and use it.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

What a great idea! I'll have to look for it too.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

I also hear that they recently updated it to include a few more modern inventions, packaged in an interactive CD and the like.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

He rocks so hard. What a neat little guy. ♥